Retro Buzz
Alexander Garmash Games iPhoneiPadiPod touchMac
Retro Buzz is a free Games app for iPhone and iPad by Alexander Garmash. Requires iOS 17.0. Updated October 6, 2026.
- Price
- Free
- on the App Store
- Size
- 3 MB
- Age 4+
- Updated
- Oct 6
- 2026 · v2.1
Screenshots
About Retro Buzz
RETRO BUZZ — A LOVE LETTER TO THE ARCADE. Dodge, shoot, deflect, chase and raid your way through a swarm of pixel-art insects across an endless ladder of escalating stages. Inspired by the arcade legends of the early '80s, Retro Buzz layers modern game-feel — combo multipliers, powerup drops, a dodge-dash, screen shake, telegraphed enemy fire — onto chunky multi-colour pixel art with a soft neon glow. SIX STAGE TYPES — AND YOU EARN THE DETOURS Formation stages are the backbone. Everything else happens because of what you did in them. • FORMATION STAGES — The classic. Bees, butterflies and Queen Bees fly in choreographed lines, settle into formation, then dive at you in pairs and groups. Watch the marked RUNNERS: they bolt for the planet once the swarm thins. Kill them all for a bonus... • PURSUIT — ...or let one escape and next stage you chase it down. Free 2D flight over a scrolling planet surface, ground turrets, waves that push harder the harder you fire, and a fortress with three cores to crack at the end. The escapees turn up as 5× bounties. • BASE ASSAULT — If a Queen carries your captured fighter off, or you shoot down the spy ship and grab its beacon, the next stage is a free-roaming raid across a looping star map. Your ship flies forward, you steer, and fire goes fore and aft. Hunt the hex stations on the radar, punch the core through its hatch (or strip all six cannon pods), dodge mines, and watch the alert climb from GREEN to RED. Find the station holding your fighter and it rejoins you as a wingman. • CHALLENGE STAGES — Bonus rounds where twin lines trace S-curves, loops, figure-8s and spirals across the screen. No damage. Pure accuracy. • BONUS ROUND — Score a PERFECT on a challenge stage and your ship becomes a paddle. The swarm fires, you bounce it back, and the ricochets one-shot anything they touch. • BOSS BATTLES — Every fifth stage the Queen Hornet drifts overhead: three HP-keyed phases, aimed shots, three-way spreads and U-shaped dive attacks. You get a 3-hit buffer per life. Every fourth stage cleared grants an extra life, and a rare 1UP drop floats down from killed enemies. Deep runs feel earned. POWERUPS R — Rapid Fire. Faster fire, bigger bullet cap. S — Spread Shot. Three-way fan. O — Shield Orb. Absorbs the next hit. B — Smart Bomb. Wipes every diving enemy on screen. ! — Beacon. Dropped by the spy ship. Reveals the enemy bases. 1 — Extra Life. Very rare. Treasure it. POLISHED FEEL • Hit feedback on every impact: sprite flash, sparks, debris, screen shake. • Combo multiplier — chain kills without a miss for up to 5× score. • Enemy fire is telegraphed at the muzzle, so you always get a fair read. • Enemies bank into their turns and face where they fly. • Hand-drawn multi-colour sprites: striped bees, red-winged butterflies with eyespots, crowned Queen Bees and a 48×48 Queen Hornet. • Optional CRT scanlines. Persistent high score and best stage. • Leave the title screen alone and the game plays itself — a different stage type every time. CONTROLS An analog stick, DASH and FIRE live in their own band under the playfield, so your thumbs never cover the action. Hold FIRE to shoot, tap DASH to dodge through bullets. The stick moves you sideways in the classic stages, flies in 2D on the planet run, and steers on the base raid. NO ADS. NO IAP. NO ACCOUNTS. JUST THE GAME. Best paired with: a quiet evening, a dim room, and the satisfying feeling of finally finding the base that took your fighter.
What’s new
Version 2.1 · Updated October 6, 2026
WHAT'S NEW IN 2.1 — A BIG VISUAL UPGRADE Same game, same scoring — it just looks and feels a whole lot better. • SILKY-SMOOTH MOTION — Rebuilt rendering keeps every ship, bullet and star gliding smoothly, at up to 120 Hz on ProMotion iPhone, iPad and Mac. • NEW WORLDS — Every five stages you enter a new sector with its own sky and a giant pixel-art planet rising behind the action. The Queen Hornet fights in front of her hive, challenge stages glow under an aurora, and the bonus round rides a neon synth grid. • A REAL PLANET TO FLY OVER — Pursuit stages scroll over coastlines, forests and cities, with clouds rushing past, ship shadows and scorched craters. • DEEP-SPACE RAIDS — Base raids get a spiral galaxy, drifting nebulae and dust streaking past as you turn. • WARP JUMPS — Clear a stage and the stars stretch into streaks as you jump to the next sector. • JUICIER COMBAT — Enemies burst into their own pixels, sparks fly the way your shot hit, the camera kicks on big hits, and every shot flashes from your cannon. • THE QUEEN'S BIG ENTRANCE — A WARNING alert, phase breaks, and a slow-motion finale when she falls. • CLEARER HUD — A CHAIN counter for your combo, countdown pips for power-ups, a shield you can watch shatter, and banners that slide in instead of covering the action. • A LIVING TITLE SCREEN — and on iPad and wide screens the background now fills the side bars. • Reduce Motion now tones down screen shake, flashes and warp effects.
App privacy
The developer, Alexander Garmash, reported these privacy practices to Apple.
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Alternatives to Retro Buzz
Looking for apps like Retro Buzz? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is Paddle Ship Arcade (5.0/5), and all 6 are free to download.
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Skiplash
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Brick Retro Cross
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Paddle Ship Arcade
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Pocket Coil Arcade
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Q-Race: 8-Bit Car Racing
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Gap Runner: Ball Dodge Arcade
| App | Rating | Price | Last updated | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retro Buzz | – | Free | October 6, 2026 | |
| Skiplash | – | Free | Sep 28, 2026 | Compare |
| Brick Retro Cross | – | Free | Jan 13, 2026 | Compare |
| Paddle Ship Arcade | 5.0 / 5 (1) | Free | Sep 19, 2026 | Compare |
| Pocket Coil Arcade | – | Free | Jan 20, 2026 | Compare |
| Q-Race: 8-Bit Car Racing | 5.0 / 5 (1) | Free | Aug 6, 2026 | Compare |
| Gap Runner: Ball Dodge Arcade | – | Free | May 14, 2026 | Compare |
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